Want to Travel More Mindfully? Here are 12 Months' of Ideas

NOVEMBER 2024
Waste Not, Want Not

Food is a huge driver of waste in hospitality, but many of the big players—for example: Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Accor, Mandarin Oriental—now are using AI-driven Winnow Solutions to address the issue. Used by more than 2,700 chefs worldwide, Winnow provides data on where waste is generated, helping companies streamline operations and make smarter decisions and promote more mindful travel and dining.

While you’re but one person, you can do your part by eating and drinking at spots that creatively recycle. Michelin-starred Amber in Hong Kong collabs with local brewery Young Master to up-cycle the hotel’s excess sourdough bread into beer, like the Amber Lychee Ale at HK$298 a bottle.

The Palace Hotel Tokyo (rooms from ¥102,000) similarly manages food waste with flair. Over the last five years, they’ve worked with Food Loss Bank to come up with menu items from refused produce and leftovers such as cut-off edges of cakes. Last year, they created a rice-flour cake using flour made from rice grown by sustainable farming methods, old rice, and imperfect rice removed from the supply chain. The hotel also has a food-waste management project called Eco-Palace that composts their kitchen refuse into fertiliser for local farms. The farm produce is then bought by the hotel and used at the staff canteen.

For sustainable dining around in the region, here’s a hit list for your travels: Bangkok’s Haoma (11-course Chef’s Tasting Menu Bt3,500), a Neo-Indian fine diner with a laundry list of sustainability initiatives; Bali’s Ijen (meal for two approx. Rp1,000,000), which aims for nothing-left-over dining; and Roost Kuala Lumpur (meal for two approx. RM300) with its minimalist, rustic, Nordic vibes and farm-to-fork philosophy.

Still hungry? Browse Michelin’s Green Starred restaurants for more eco-gastronomy inspiration.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT THE PALACE HOTEL TOKYO VIA BOOKING.COM

BOOK YOUR STAY AT THE PALACE HOTEL TOKYO VIA AGODA.COM

DECEMBER 2024
Purposeful Feasting

Festive vacations can be mindful travel, too. What if all your celebratory eating and drinking could benefit others less fortunate? Building on November’s food-mindfulness, this December, put positive impact on the menu during the season of giving.

Rosewood Hong Kong’s BluHouse (BluLunch from HK$348) serves Italian fare with a side of social impact. They work with the government to be able to legally employ undocumented refugees, and one percent of their revenue goes to underserved groups in Tsim Sha Tsui. They also run the BluUp Upskilling Programme, a collab with LoveXpress SEN, which provides special needs youths with essential skills for work and for life—with a potential spot on the BluHouse team for top graduates.

In Australia, Ace Hotel Sydney has partnered with Two Good Co. for a yearlong chef series at their restaurant Loam (meal for two approx. A$150). All profits help Two Good Co. continue its mission to support, empower and employ women rebuilding their selfworth and independence after domestic violence, homelessness and trauma.

Around Asia, eateries for good causes aren’t too hard to find. There’s the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders in Tokyo, whose servers are people living with dementia. There’s Jars of Clay in Phnom Penh, employing disadvantaged and at-risk young women. In Bangkok, there’s the longstanding Cabbages and Condoms, which provides accessible family-planning services.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT ROSEWOOD HONG KONG VIA BOOKING.COM

JANUARY 2025
Dry-tripping

Around the world, young people are drinking less than older generations and sobriety is influencing the way we travel, too. “Dry-tripping” lets you take mindful travel to sober heights, and proves cocktails aren’t essential to a good time.

Dedicated low- and non-alcoholic venues such as Nolo! (seasonal cocktails from ₩18,000), a naturalist bar and cafe in Seoul’s Gangnam district, are making sobriety cooler than ever. Nolo!’s mission of “meaningful drinking” is a first for the soju-loving city.

Lauded fine-dining restaurants around Asia are also getting serious about their non-alcoholic pairing menus. Zén in Singapore (set dinner S$580 per person) offers house-fermented juice-based drinks that mirror the impeccably chosen wines on the menu. Sühring (tasting menu Bt7,800) in Bangkok offers a pairing of complex homemade drinks like mint kombucha with quince, turmeric and dill, as well as a list of purposefully crafted mocktails. The super-cool logy in Taipei (tasting menu TW$4,250) also has a non-alcoholic beverage pairing with its omakase Taiwanese-Japanese menu.

For a totally booze-free trip, try a detox and wellness retreat in Sri Lanka at Santani Wellness Kandy (rooms from US$440, 7-day Detox from US$4,076.80), in Koh Samui, Thailand, at Kamalaya (rooms from Bt8,500 per night min. stay three nights, 7-day detox programme Bt99,907 not including room), or at Alba Wellness Valley by Fusion (US$198 5-Day Detox Yourself programme US$475) north of Hue in Vietnam.

FEBRUARY 2025
Be Your Valentine

Forget about roses, chocolates and candlelight dinners. Make February the month you shower love on yourself through indulgent wellness experiences: mindful travel with a self-care focus.

Skincare fanatics will enjoy a ‘prejuvenation’ treatment of a facial and eye ritual at One & Only Desaru Coast. This is the first spa in the region to use Augustinus Bader, a cult skincare brand founded by a stem cell research expert—Sofia Coppola and Margot Robbie are apparently die-hard fans (treatments from RM480).

Another mindful travel experience worth the solo splurge is a stay at Janu Tokyo (rooms from ¥130,000), Aman’ssister hotel brand anchored in wellness and connection. Spend the day at the 4,000-square-metre wellness centre or at a Spa House, a private treatment space with its own sauna and steam room, a plunge pool, an outdoor terrace with a stunning view, and either a banya (Russian bath) or hammam.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT ONE & ONLY DERASU COAST VIA BOOKING.COM

BOOK YOUR STAY AT ONE & ONLY DERASU COAST VIA AGODA.COM

MARCH 2025
Care for Community

When he said, “to travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries,” Aldous Huxley meant that one must engage with different cultures first-hand to really get to know them. That’s the way to figure out how to support them where we can.

One step: Be more discerning about where we stay. The Regenerative Travel collection vets its members for positive community impact.

Banyan Group’s Stay For Good initiative makes it easier to connect with local communities and honour cultural traditions. For instance, at Banyan Tree Anji (rooms from RMB1,445) in eastern China, you can join a local farmer to dig for bamboo shoots—a popular Anji delicacy—to be used in your meal. They also offer an encounter with the She ethnic minority so you can learn about their life and heritage first-hand.

Indonesia’s luxurious, award-winning Nihi Sumba (rooms from US$2,207) aims to preserve Sumbanese culture and help improve local living standards. The resort gives back through the Sumba Foundation, whose humanitarian work includes village-based projects that establish access to clean water, foster ongoing educational programmes, and combat malaria.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT BANYAN TREE ANJI VIA BOOKING.COM

BOOK YOUR STAY AT NIHI SUMBA VIA AGODA.COM

APRIL 2025
Come to the Dark Side

From Shanghai to Sydney, it’s always thrilling to see glittering skyscrapers dominate the skyline. The downside of all that urban development, however, is light pollution. In honour of Earth Day and International Dark Sky Week, April 2–8, what about going on a lights-out adventure?

A top place to escape light pollution is down under, where New Zealand boasts nine official Dark Sky locations. Of particular note is Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, home to the country’s tallest peaks and largest glaciers, a spellbinding setting for Milky Way-gazing.

If you prefer to stargaze from outside a luxury Mughal-style tent, the Cosmic Safari experience at Aman-i-Khas (rooms from US$3,000) in Rajasthan, India, is for you. Bathe in a vast blanket of peaceful starry skies and learn the names of different celestial bodies from the camp’s in-house astronomer.

MAY 2025
Dip into Social Bathing

Be it a Finnish sauna or a Turkish hammam, the healing power of water is well known. According to a Global Wellness Institute report, the social aspect of outdoor saunas and urban bathhouses is fuelling a surge in popularity, mitigating feelings of loneliness and improving overall mental health.

Social bathing is particularly attractive to younger generations, who prefer healthy social experiences that don’t cost a month’s rent. In particular, contrast therapy—alternating dips in hot and cold water—has been making the rounds on Instagram. Breath Inspired (sessions from Bt650) in Bangkok offers a weekly Wednesday-night ice bath, hot tub and sauna session (and one on Saturdays that starts with breathwork), to help participants further their practice of the Wim Hof method while making likeminded friends.

Hot springs are blessedly quite easy to come by in this part of the world. The pinnacle of social bathing can be experienced in Japan, where there are public bathhouses (called sento) in every neighbourhood and the onsen experience reaches luxurious heights.

The historic Ginzan Onsen is one of Japan’s prettiest destinations for hot-spring bathing, with an abundance of ryokan to choose from. Only staying in Tokyo? Book Hoshinoya Tokyo (rooms from ¥43,350 per person twin share), an urban ryokan with the “Otemachi Onsen”—a rooftop bath drawing thermal water from 1,500 metres underground.

JUNE 2025
Turn the Tides

It’s World Ocean Day on June 8, so this is a fitting month to explore the seas and support marine ecology in the region.

Kids these days are more eco-savvy than their parents, and Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives taps into children’s love for the sea with a Junior Marine Biology programme (US$80 per child per session), with classwork, snorkelling, and science experiments overseen by the Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI) team of marine biologists.

VOMO Island Resort in Fiji works with non-profit Counting Coral, which combines art, science and conservation to create a stronger impact. They craft underwater art installations that serve as coral gene banks—living sculptures that not only protect the marine habitat but help corals grow. You can see them on a free snorkel tour or a scuba experience where you can assist with the maintenance of the sculptures (US$150 for reef restoration dive).

Even the tiniest tots can get involved in marine conservation at the Bamboo Shark Nursery at JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort and Spa (rooms from Bt3,800). Through the Good Travel with Marriott Bonvoy programme, guests can learn about the importance of bamboo sharks to the local environment and even release into the ocean baby sharks. (Doo, doo, doo, doo-doo-doo.)

BOOK YOUR STAY AT VOMO ISLAND RESORT VIA AGODA.COM

BOOK YOUR STAY AT JW MARRIOTT KHAO LAK RESORT AND SPA VIA BOOKING.COM

JULY 2025
Mindful Travel Goes Wild

You can’t beat the thrill of going where the wild things are. For an immersive wildlife experience these days, there are plenty of operators that not only bring you to the action but protect it, too.

Shinta Mani Wild (rates from US$2,188 all-inclusive) is the obvious choice. The Bensley Collection luxury tented camp is set on 350 hectares in Cambodia’s Cardamom National Forest, and proceeds of your stay fund the Shinta Mani Foundation’s conservation activities. The forest is home to lots of endangered wildlife, including 54 animals on the IUCN red list. The resort’s “adventure butlers” can arrange for you to join an intense hike with the anti-poaching patrol or take you kayaking down a vegetation-curtained river.

For regenerative safari-ing, in India, there’s Suján, a family-owned brand that runs three luxury camps in Rajasthan. Suján Jawai’s 10 tented suites (rates from Rs125,000 min. two nights) allow you to bask in a landscape dotted with billionyear-old granite formations and where leopards run freely. Wilderness drives and guided walks with Rabari herdsmen ensure sightings of the big cats and other wildlife, and every aspect of the operation funds its comprehensive conservation programme, including anti-poaching exercises and rewilding initiatives. They also run the SNS Foundation, which works to positively impact local communities.

AUGUST 2025
Destination: Zzzz

“Fly and flop” holidays are perennially popular, because is there anything more relaxing than doing nothing? Actually, there is… having the best sleep of your life.

Hotels have always been in the business of sleep, but lately there’s a growing focus on optimising shut-eye, whether through “rituals,” spa treatments or circadian-rhythm reprogramming.

The Sleep at Hyatt programme at hotels in Australia and New Zealand equips you with handy tools for a restful slumber: Headspace meditations, a sleep ritual pack from iKOU and Dreamers glasses to minimise the blue light from your evening doom scroll. Then there’s Langham Hotels Sleep Matters by Chuan; Anantara’s Sleep Restoration; Sleep Well by Westin, featuring their trademarked Heavenly Bed; and Pan Pacific Group’s Happy Sleepers programme.

For a more scientific approach to mindful travel, Thailand’s OG wellness resort Chiva-Som offers the Sleep Enhancement Specialisation (retreat from Bt29,400 per person per night), which combines advanced sleep hormone and sleep apnoea testing, nutrition testing and a tailored room set-up to ensure the most effective—and relaxing—sleep retreat you’ll ever need.

SEPTEMBER 2025
Go on a “Hobbiday”

It’s a scientific fact that having a hobby is beneficial to overall health, so it makes sense to delve deep into one of yours when you have more time on your hands. Enter: hobbidays.

Tap into your creative side with artisan-led experiences in Japan. At Azumi Setoda, a modern ryokan in Seto Inland Sea, take part in tea rituals and learn how to make traditional Japanese sweets with a craftsman from the 400-year-old Toraya Confectionary (¥28,000 per person). In Kyoto, Maana Homes offers workshops in indigo dyeing, with morning tea or afternoon drinks (¥38,000 per person). They run craft-related retreats year round, which include accommodation, meals, workshops and excursions/activities.

Avid cyclist? See more of your destination on an active vacation with Grasshopper Adventures, which has been running bicycle tours in Asia for almost 20 years. A seven-day guided tour of Southern Taiwan (from US$3,190), for instance, would have you stopping at hot springs and refueling at dumpling restaurants, while a Vietnam Essentials Tour (from US$2,450) takes you from the Mekong Delta to Hoi An.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT AZUMI SETODA VIA BOOKING.COM

OCTOBER 2024
Mindful Travel Matters

It’s World Mental Health Day on October 10, and what better way to boost well-being than with some mindful travel experiences? Soneva Fushi (USD$3,200 per night per adult) in the Maldives regularly books Soneva Stars, hosting residencies with Michelin-starred chefs, authors, astronomers, sports figures and other types of wellness experts. No matter which month you travel in, you can join special activities and workshops with their resident star.

Maldives too far? Como Shambhala Singapore (treatments from S$45) has you covered. Aside from high-tech facilities such as Singapore’s first Hyperbaric Airpod™, you’ll find sessions like the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) by Cheen Chong Tan and Restorative Yoga with Sound Healing by Azmi Samdjaga.

T+L TIP: The app Headspace (US$69.99 per year) is great for meditation on the go. We prefer the calming, friendly vibe of founder Andy’s voice, but he’s got an ever-growing stable of dulcet-toned friends to help you get through various types of stress or to drift off to sleep.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT SONEVA FUSHI VIA BOOKING.COM

Lede and hero images by One&Only and Shinta Mani Wild.

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